


Mightier Than The Sword

by prettybirdy979



Series: Pure Imagination [2]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Magic, Attempted Kidnapping, Canon-Typical Violence, Family Secrets, Friendship, Gen, Identity Reveal, Magic Revealed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 01:23:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5072554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettybirdy979/pseuds/prettybirdy979
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So Foggy's magic is a bit specific and needs written runes to work. It doesn't matter, he's always got a pen on him somewhere and it's definitely helped him in a few situations over the years. He's got this.</p><p>(Or Five times Foggy used a pen to work magic and the one time he managed without one)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mightier Than The Sword

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this instead of essaying because I am SO smart. But hey, finally got more of the [ magical AU](http://prettybirdy979.tumblr.com/tagged/DD-Magical-AU/chrono) out. Woo!
> 
> A huge thank you to Interrosand for betaing this. It ah, kinda turned into a mini monster. Sorry!
> 
> Warning for the attempted kidnap of a child in the first section.

**1.**

Foggy runs, trying to ignore the sound of someone chasing him. If he can just ma-

Brett slams into him, driving them both to the ground. Coughing up dirt, Foggy rolls out of Brett’s grip. ‘Hey!’ he says, biting his lip.

‘What are you _d_ _oing_? Your Mom said to stay put!’ Brett cries, angry like he’s the boss of Foggy because he’s _six_. Like six is that much older than five.

‘I want to swing.’ Foggy looks up and his Mom is still right there talking to Mrs Brett’s Mom. She said to stay in sight and stay with Brett while they talked. And the swings are just over there, so why can’t he go play on them. ‘You didn’t have to hurt me.’

With an angry sigh Brett gets up and offers Foggy his hand. Foggy refuses it because they are arc amethysts - something that always makes his Mom and Dad laugh when he says it because they say he’s cute. He’s not cute, he’s five! He’s too old to be cute; Candy and Rosie are cute because they’re babies. He’s a grown up, he’s not cute.

Brett rolls his eyes but doesn’t help him get up. ‘We should go back.’

‘I want to swing.’ Foggy starts to walk towards the swings.

This makes Brett groan but a second later he’s by Foggy’s side. ‘I’m coming with you. If I’m going to get into trouble for you I want first swing.’

‘No way!’ As if that’s a signal, both boys start to sprint for the swings.

Foggy gets there first and hops onto the big kid swing with a smirk. Brett stops in front of him, so he can’t swing. ‘You cheated.’

‘Did not!’ Foggy sticks his tongue out.

‘Did so.’ Brett sticks his tongue out too. ‘I know you did. You used magic.’ He stamps his feet.

Outrage roars through Foggy. ‘I did not!’ He feels in his pocket and pulls out the pen his Mom always makes sure he has. ‘I have to use this to do magic.’

In a flash, Brett’s taken it. ‘Haha!’ He takes off, Foggy right on his heels.

‘Give that back!’ Brett’s faster than Foggy though, and while he can keep up, he can’t quite catch up. They keep running, neither watching where they’re going until Brett runs into a tall man dressed in a large coat.  

‘Sorry,’ Brett says, suddenly demure. Foggy catches up but stays a step back. He notices that they’ve reached the edge of the park and are now on the sidewalk. Oh no.

The man smiles, a creepy thing. ‘You will be.’ Then he picks Brett up so his arms can’t move and his legs are dangling; and starts dragging him towards the van parked on the street. Brett starts screaming. He stops when the man covers his mouth.

For a second Foggy is frozen, but then he charges. ‘Leave him alone. Help! Help!’ he cries as he tries to hit and kick at the man holding Brett. That’s when a second man exits the van and grabs Foggy, a hand instantly going over his mouth.

They’re thrown in the van and the door is slammed on them. A second later the van starts to move with a squealing noise. Foggy starts to cry.

Brett grabs him a moment later. ‘Shh! Be quiet, we’ll fix this.’ When Foggy meets his eyes he can see they’re full of tears too but he’s biting his lip. ‘Can… can you use magic?’

‘I don’t have my pen,’ Foggy sobs out. His tears stop in shock a moment later when Brett holds up the pen. Foggy takes it carefully, then reaches under his shirt for his amethyst. He takes the necklace off and puts it on the floor so he can draw on the stone his Mom never lets him leave home without. It’s hard to draw while moving but Foggy manages the rune his parents made him draw over and over and over again, until he could do it in his sleep. Then he turns the stone over, reversing the rune.

There’s a flash of light as the spell takes and Foggy watches it go. Then he meets Brett’s eyes with a smirk as he puts his necklace back on. Brett looks slightly scared but also determined.

‘Wanna be trouble?’

Brett smirks.

Foggy searches his mind for a scary rune for the evil men but he can’t think of anything. Then he remembers the one he’d seen in his Mom’s book before she’d slammed it shut. He crawls towards the front of the van and carefully draws the straight line before pausing.

Which way had the line gone again? Foggy guesses, drawing a line down to the left from the top of his. As soon as he sits back he realises he got it wrong; the line was meant to go to the right. He sniffs, a sob building.

It’s then the evil men start screaming. Terrified, Foggy shoots back to the back of the van; Brett by his side. They grab another as the screaming continues and the van suddenly stops; throwing them forward.

It _hurts_  and Foggy starts to cry, Brett a second behind him. But their cries can’t drown out the ones from the front of the van.

Someone starts to pound on the back of the van. Foggy barely has time to get even more scared before the van door is opening and-

‘Mom!’ he cries and throws himself at his mother, whose eyes are glowing with the purple of Foggy’s spell. She catches him and pulls him out of the van, stepping aside so Mrs Brett’s Mom can grab Brett too.

‘Foggy,’ she says and hugs him so tight it nearly hurts. ‘Foggy, I told you not to wander off!’

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’msorry.’ He buries his head into her shoulder and starts to sob. ‘I’msorry.’

She pats his back. ‘It’s okay. You’re safe. It’s okay.’

‘I did the magic right.’

‘You did,’ she hugs him a little tighter. ‘Good boy.’

************

**2.**

They passed their exams.

They _passed_  their exams! They’re going to graduate; they’re going to be lawyers; they’re going to make i-’

‘Foggy you’re saying that aloud,’ Matt calls from his position on the floor beside his bed.

So he is.

‘And that.’ Foggy rolls over so he can see his friend’s lazy smile. ‘You do realise it’s only first year. We’ve like um, ah, ages away from graduating.’

Foggy waves a hand. ‘So what! We _passed._ ’ He pats down his pockets, trying to find his pen. ‘We should celebrate.’ Of course, he’s not sure how he should celebrate but he knows he’ll need his pen if he wants to do magic.

‘I thought that’s what we were doing?’ Matt pats around for the bottle of scotch he’d been drinking and finds it before Foggy can say anything. He takes a swing of it and Foggy has to laugh at the look on his face when he realises it’s empty. ‘Damn it.’

Foggy’s hand closes on his pen. ‘Empty Buddy?’

Matt glares at him. Well Matt glares at the wall to his left but it’s the same effect. His glasses were abandoned three drinks in and Foggy’s so happy they were. ‘You know it is, you can see it.’ He tries for another swing and seems upset it doesn’t yield different results.

‘I can fix that,’ Foggy says softly. This… this might be a bad choice and something in him is screaming that he’s drunk but they’ve been roommates an entire year and Matt still doesn’t know about Foggy’s magic. It’s like he doesn’t know about half of Foggy’s life. Which is _w_ _rong_  because they’re best friends and Matt should know everything about him. Because Foggy can’t leave Brett as the only person outside his family to know about his magic; people will start to think Brett’s his best friend. When Matt is. So he’ll do this for him, because that’s what best friends do. Share their abilities.

But Matt waves a hand. ‘I got it.’ His tone is light but as always, his face gives his emotions away. Even drunk, Foggy can tell he’s nervous. Why-?

Matt traces something onto the bottle and there’s a rush of magic in the air, something Foggy’s not felt since he went home for Easter. He takes an involuntary deep breath as Matt’s bottle refills itself.

‘No way,’ he breathes out and Matt flinches. ‘No way!’ he repeats, louder this time. ‘Dude you have _magic_!’

‘Yes,’ Matt says shortly and with a touch of hurt in his tone. Foggy realises what Matt might be thinking - blaming the alcohol for his slowness - and fumbles for his pen. For a moment he’s stuck on what to do but realises it doesn’t matter, so long as it’s magic. He quickly doodles the first rune that comes to mind onto his hand and pushes as much power as he can into it.

It’s Matt’s turn to gasp as Foggy’s magic fills the air but he’s overdone it and not made the spell airtight. They have a second to stare - or attempt to stare - at another in amazement before it starts to rain.

Inside.

Foggy starts sputtering and trying to rub off the rune while Matt loses it on the floor, rolling around on the rapidly dampening wood. Finally Foggy manages to erase enough to break the spell, leaving them a soaked but now rain free dorm.

Matt is still laughing. ‘I’m glad you find this amusing Buddy,’ Foggy calls as he tries to catalogue the damage through a foggy mind. Haha, a foggy mind.

‘We’ve been hiding magic from each other all year when we didn’t have to and you just flooded our room. What isn’t funny?’

Well when it’s summed up like that, Matt is kinda right. Foggy finds himself starting to laugh too. In fact he laughs so hard, he falls off the bed with a loud thump which only causes Matt to laugh harder. Foggy attempts to wriggle towards Matt to hit him but it’s hard when he’s really starting to feel tired...

The next morning they’ll wake up on the floor together, puddles of water around them. It’ll take them just minutes to magic the room dry - after Foggy walks Matt through a hangover spell because it seems no one ever taught him that useful little thing - but six months to get the damp smell out.

************

**3.**

Foggy turns up at Matt’s the night after they help win their tenth case for Landman and Zac, a six pack of Matt’s stupidly expensive beer in one hand and a pizza in the other. As usual, he only gets a single, quiet knock in before Matt’s opening the door to let him in, wearing his old Columbia sweater and sacks. His glasses are nowhere to be seen. Foggy feels overdressed in his work suit but it’s a price he’ll happily pay to see Matt looking so relaxed.

‘You’ve gotta teach me whatever spell you have that lets you know I’m coming,’ he says as he breezes past to put the pizza on the table. The rest of their legal team is out together, celebrating the win but Foggy had watched Matt slink off and gone for emergency pizza. He knows working at Landman and Zac is wearing on Matt but they’re only a couple of months and maybe one or two cases from finishing their internship. Foggy’s hoping Matt can last.

Matt shrugs as he pads into the kitchen and pulls down a pair of plates. ‘It’s not really a spell I can teach. I just… kinda willed it into my building?’

Foggy sighs at Matt’s usual, vague answer as he sits down. It’s not his fault so much of his magic is instinctual because of his upbringing, even if it makes sharing spells a pain. ‘Right. That makes absolutely no sense Buddy, I hope you know that.’ Matt laughs as he places a plate in front of Foggy. ‘And seriously, you’re still on about the plates? It’s pizza!’

‘That’s no excuse to be messy.’ Matt takes the seat across from Foggy. ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness.’ There’s a smirk in his voice, even if he’s managing to keep it off his face.

‘And you can clean your place you know,’ Foggy says, falling into the familiar argument with a smile. ‘There’s this thing called magic that makes it really simple.’

Matt takes a bite of pizza and groans a bit in delight. Foggy has deliberately brought the good pizza, from that place with the stupid prices that Matt loves but never gets for himself. ‘Not the same,’ he manages to say through a mouthful of pizza.

‘It really is.’ Foggy takes another piece of pizza and deliberately ignores the plate. Matt must somehow be able to tell - no sound of the plate moving or something - because he glares in Foggy’s direction. Foggy just smirks, ‘I am smirking at you right now.’

Matt suddenly smirks and turns his head towards his cupboards. He waves his hand, then draws a complicated symbol in midair. It’s not one Foggy recognises so probably one of his own inven-

His thoughts cut off as the cupboard door opens and a pair of plates march out, headed for Foggy. He’s fishing for his pen before they even reach him, careful to swallow the gasp of awe at Matt’s power. The second the plates are in range he draws the rune for breaking things on them.

The plates shatter loudly. Matt freezes as his smirk slides off his face. ‘Did you just break my plates?’

‘You attacked me with them, I defended myself.’ Foggy starts to wolf down the remaining slices of his half of the pizza, aware where this is going to lead.

‘This means war you know.’ Matt flicks a hand and the plate he’d been eating off jumps up to start to march across the table. So does the one Foggy was eating from, but he’s already on that, shattering it quickly. Matt’s plate dodges his first attempt to write on it but while it’s got Matt’s powerful magic behind it, it’s still a plate. Foggy gets it on the second go and shatters it too.

Five minutes later most of Matt’s crockery is in pieces but they’re laughing their heads off. ‘This is going to cost a fortune to replace,’ Matt mutters from the sofa, where he’s been banished. No way is Foggy letting his blind friend walk around broken ceramics.

‘That’s why we have magic Matt.’ Foggy finds the biggest piece of a plate left and draws another rune on it, this time the one to renew things. For a long moment his magic is unsure but he pushes at it and the plate slowly reforms, the pieces drifting back together. ‘There, fixed.’

‘You have to teach me that.’

Foggy looks over at his friend. ‘No time like the present.’ He grabs another piece and moves to sit beside Matt. Carefully, he draws out the rune then takes Matt’s hand to trace it. Their magic builds together and it is awesome.

Right up until they release the spell and Foggy has to pull Matt’s head down to avoid the racing pieces of crockery that fly through the air as the plate rapidly resembles.

‘Okay, so we need practice at this whole, combined spell thing.’

Matt smirks. ‘No time like the present.’

************

**4.**

‘YES!’

Foggy starts a happy dance in the middle of their new office, complete with delighted spins and jumps. Matt’s standing by the window and laughing; probably at the amount of noise all this jumping around is making. Emboldened, Foggy lunges forward and grabs his friend’s hands.

‘No, Foggy,’ Matt says but he doesn’t resist Foggy pulling him into the middle of the room.

‘We did it! Nelson and Murdock!’ Foggy manages to spin Matt three times before they stumble and he lets go. Foggy watches him feel for a wall then slide down it, resting his head back on it while grinning broadly.

Foggy flops down beside him and stares at _their_  ceiling. ‘We did it,’ he repeats and fumbles for his thigh to slap.

‘We did. No more cupboard offices.’ That jogs Foggy’s memory and he’s on his feet in an instant. ‘Foggy?’ Matt asks and Foggy can hear the confusion in his voice but he’s too busy digging through his bag to care. ‘What are you doing?’

‘What I couldn’t do at Landman and Zack, Buddy!’ Finally Foggy finds the piece of cardboard he’d brought, just in case they did take this place. He finishes in his pocket for his ever faithful pen and pulls it out with a cry of triumph.

First he figures out which side looks better, and earmarks that side to act as the sign he’ll hang on their new door. Then he carefully starts to draw the runes he wants onto the back of the cardboard, feeling the magic build with each stroke of his pen. When the last rune - the one to denote gifts, balance and exchanges to go with the runes begging for success and wealth - is drawn, Foggy releases the magic and feels it begin to settle in the room.

‘Oh,’ says Matt as he shifts over to be beside Foggy. ‘Of course.’ He reaches out a hand and Foggy take it, helping him to trace the runes with his fingers. As they go, Foggy can feel Matt’s magic building and adding to his. It’s a familiar feeling now.

But Matt doesn’t release it when he traces the last rune. ‘Is there… Is there one for protection? I’ve ah… forgotten.’ Matt’s voice is quiet and Foggy feels a pang of anger and sadness. While he’s never said so, Foggy’s sure Matt wasn’t taught anything about runes to forget. He’s tried to teach Matt as much as he can, but Matt’s still a bit shaky on runes. He’s better with herbs and stones, things he can feel and touch.

‘There’s two that offer protection. Depends on what you want.’

‘Safety,’ Matt says instantly. ‘A.. a sanctuary, somewhere safe for us. And the innocent,’ he tacks on.

Foggy raises an eyebrow, secure in the knowledge Matt can’t see it. Matt’s just described the opposite rune to what he’d have picked if protection had been on his mind but he’s not going to say anything. ‘Sure, there’s one for that.’ Quickly he draws it out, barely bothering to build the magic before it’s released. Then he takes Matt’s finger and helps him trace it.

The second Matt’s finished tracing it, he releases his magic. He throws so much behind it that it’s almost physical, like a punch to the chest, and Foggy has to hide a gasp. This magic isn’t going to fade for months and it… it barely feels like a protection spell, a defensive spell.

Somehow Matt’s managed to cast an _offensive_  protection spell. Well, Matt’s never been one to be limited by what’s possible. Foggy ignores the thought that it’s because he was never actually taught what was possible and rises. ‘Come on Buddy, we should hang this up.’

Matt nods with a smile and pats his way to Foggy’s bag. He fishes in it for the tape. ‘Foggy?’

‘Here.’ Matt tosses the tape in the direction of his voice, a nice underarm throw that Foggy has no issues catching. Foggy holds the tape in his teeth as he positions the sign, and breathes a sigh of relief when it settles into position, trapping their spells in their office. Matt echoes it a moment later.

‘Perfect.’

************

**5.**

His best friend is bleeding out on the floor and something in Foggy is breaking even as he panics. Because Matt has been _lying_  to him since forever and it’s not even an understandable lie like keeping magic hidden but a big, cruel, evil lie like… like if Matt is blind. Somehow, someway, Matt is capable of the kind of scary but awesome moves the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen does and he never told Foggy. Unless he uses magic but Foggy’s sure even Matt’s unusual style of magic can’t manage to cast spells to see the detail required for those moves at the speed it would need to.

Of course, getting answers to his many many questions is reliant on Matt living through the next two minutes and Foggy’s getting kinda unsure on if that’s a possibility. He grabs his discarded phone and starts to dial 911 again.

Matt’s hand grabs his wrist. ‘No hospitals,’ he croaks out.

‘No-’ Foggy cuts himself off as Matt flails at him, a movement that might’ve been an attempt at a punch if Matt wasn’t half dead. But he takes the hint and drops the call. ‘Matt, you’re _dying_.’

‘Call Claire. Claire.’ Matt seems to lose consciousness but not before he manages to pat at his pocket. Foggy reaches into it with shaking hands and finds Matt’s burner phone.

There’s only one contact. He dials. _’Where are you and how bad is it?’_  a woman answers, not even bothering to say hello.

‘What?’ Foggy manages to choke out.

 _’Who are you and how did you get this phone?’_  Her tone is instantly defensive and that’s all Foggy needs to know.

‘I’m Matt’s friend. He’s hurt bad-’

_'Where?’_

‘His place?’ She hangs up the moment he’s finished talking. Clearly this ‘Claire’ knows where Matt lives.

But will she make it in time? Foggy looks down at his bloodied friend, whose wheezing breaths are starting to slow and something in him snaps. He might hate every inch of Matt’s stupid body right now but he’s not letting him die. Ever.

Foggy fishes out his pen and gets to work. He’s never been any good at healing spells - you either have the nack or you don’t - but even his simple runes for health should be enough to keep Matt breathing until the woman he trusts to save him shows up. The woman who is not Foggy but is clearly trusted more than Foggy is.

One rune is drawn on each of Matt’s ankles; repeated on each of his wrists. Another is drawn on his chest, just above the gaping hole in his torso before Foggy releases the spell. Within seconds, Matt’s breaths are starting to come easier and the blood weeping out of the various cuts seems to be slowing down. At least, as far as Foggy’s panicked, still vaguely drunk mind can tell. He might be imagining things but as stuff goes, he’d rather imagine this best case scenario.

There’s a knock at the door. Foggy’s on his feet in a second, stumbling over himself in his haste to open it. A vaguely familiar woman breezes through carrying a first aid kit, and heads straight for Matt. ‘You’re Claire?’ Foggy half asks, half declares as she kneels at his friend’s side.

‘I am.’ She doesn’t say anything else and proceeds to ignore him as she runs her hands over Matt. Foggy finds himself sliding down to sit on the floor when his knees stop working. He looks down at his hands and the blood slowly drying on them and wonders if he has the strength to wash them. And if washing the blood off will wash Matt away.

Then, halfway through whatever complicated first aid thing she’s doing, Claire stops. ‘Where’d he get these?’

Foggy looks up from his hands. ‘What?’

‘The runes.’ She meets his eyes and pokes at the rune Foggy’d drawn on Matt’s chest.

‘I’m no good at healing but I do a good rune,’ Foggy says tonelessly, unable to care he’s just outed himself as magical to this stranger. Something in him is broken and he’s just not feeling anything right now.

Claire blinks in surprise. ‘You too, huh? I thought we were supposed to be rare?’ Foggy looks up in surprise as Claire releases a powerful healing spell; one he can feel even from where he is.

‘My parents always said people gather in groups with shared values. Why should witches be any different?’ Some strength returns to his limbs and he finds he can at least crawl towards Matt, to watch the spell knit together flesh and reassure himself that Matt will live.

‘Good thought. I can’t heal him completely, there must’ve been something on the blade. You’ll have to watch him tonight; if he starts to choke, call an ambulance.’

‘Wait, what?’ Foggy jerks in surprises as she starts to pack her kit up. ‘You’re leaving?’

‘I’m using up my break to be here. Help me get him onto the sofa.’

Wordlessly, Foggy manages to get him feet under himself and helps Claire put Matt onto the sofa. ‘But… what? How? Who are you? What do you know? How is this possible?’

Claire shakes her head. ‘I’m sorry, it’s not my story to tell. I have to go. Call me if anything changes.’ Before Foggy can protest, she’s out the door and he’s left alone with a less dying Matt.

God, he needs a drink.

He leaves his now bloodstained pen where he dropped it; he’ll get another one later.

************

**+1**

‘Foggy, what are you doing?’

Foggy doesn’t look up from his work, not surprised at the lack of surprise in Matt’s voice at finding Foggy in his apartment. He must have heard Foggy’s heartbeat or breaths or needle or something from the stairwell. And since he gave Foggy a key, it’s not like he can be mad Foggy’s here.

Not after the four times he’s broken into Foggy’s apartment through the window since Fisk. At least Foggy used the door.

‘What does it look like I’m doing?’

There’s a long pause and Foggy looks up to see Matt’s raised eyebrow as he puts his bag down. ‘Nothing. It looks like you’re doing nothing.’ While Matt’s tone is serious, his lips are twitching.

‘Ha. Ha. Your blind jokes were funnier before I knew what you can sense.’ Foggy pulls another stitch through and examines his work with a critical eye.

‘You hated my blind jokes back then.’ Matt takes a seat on the sofa beside Foggy, tilting his head.

‘My point exactly!’ Another stitch and he’ll be done.

Matt shifts. ‘Is there a reason you’re sewing something into my suit?’

Foggy nods. ‘Oh yeah. I know you said ‘no magic’ while Daredevil, which is very sporting of you, go you breaking the law politely but this isn’t your magic. It’s mine so it doesn’t count.’ With a careful tug, he finishes the final stitch and releases the spell. He throws as much power as he can behind it, and while a wave of tiredness sweeps over him it's definitely worth it.

‘I think the point of ‘no magic in the suit’ is for there to be no magic in the suit?’ Matt puts out his hands as Foggy passes over the suit. The second it’s in his hands, he freezes. ‘What did you do?’

‘Protection. Nothing that’ll affect anyone you fight with, but it should keep you safe...er. Safer.’

Matt runs his hands over the half dozen neatly stitched runes, all with different meanings and smiles. ‘So this is why you left early.’

‘Had to get it done before you went out tonight. I… I might not like what you do,’ Foggy ignores Matt’s flinch, ‘but I’m not letting you go out unprotected.’ Looking around, Foggy spots Matt’s cowl and reaches for it. Carefully, he hands it to Matt.

‘Foggy?’

‘Good luck,’ he whispers and he can feel the instinctive spell building, ‘be careful and always come back to me alive.’

Matt takes the cowl gently, and Foggy feels his power building too. ‘I swear I will,’ he whispers and their spell releases, settling in on Matt’s cowl. ‘I swear I will,’ he repeats and it feels like a promise, a prayer and a prophecy all in one.

‘I swear I will,’ he whispers a final time and the spell is sealed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Also I did had a rune in mind for _every_ single one Foggy uses. Feel free to ask (and I might even remember what they were)!


End file.
